By Nick Guthrie (Daily Liberal) - 30 October 2022

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Those among Saturday's massive Derby Day crowd who followed hometown trainer Clint Lundholm enjoyed a hugely successful time at Dubbo Turf Club.

In front of nearly 4000 racegoers, Lundholm was the star of the show as he trained a winning treble.

Royal Affair took out the Western Eagle feature while the highly exciting pair of Career Change and Let Me Reign added to their promising records with strong victories.

It was a welcome result for Lundholm who, like so many other trainers, has been severely impacted by the wet weather in recent months.

"It's always good to show up on Derby Day," Lundholm said.

"We've been building for a good day. Just getting back on a good track was our biggest concern and we got it there. They do a great job looking after that track.

"It's always frustrating when you get washed out meetings and horses get on wet tracks and underperform compared to how you think they'll go but you keep doing what you do. What we do here works and it showed there yesterday (Saturday)."

The Western Eagle (2200m) was the first event to be run at the bumper 10-race meeting and Royal Affair scoring a convincing three-length win.

Despite never racing over 1600m before in her 10-race career, Lundholm was confident of a good showing and he got it as jockey Ben Looker led with the $4.60 hope from almost start to finish.

"The last couple of runs she's probably been a bit disappointing but she'd been getting back in her races and plugging away and both times the jockeys had come back and said the same thing, that she wants further," the trainer said.

"We would have loved 2000m, that could have been ideal for her, but it didn't matter in the end and she bolted in and won well."

Lundholm's other two winners will be a pair worth keeping an eye on moving forward.

The lightly-race Career Change scored her first win at last year's Derby Day meeting and made it career win number three in start number eight in Saturday's David Payne Constructions Benchmark 66 Handicap (1000m).

Jumping a hot $2.35 favourite with Jordan Mallyon in the saddle, Career Change went on to win by three lengths while Let Me Reign ($3.40) and Looker won by slightly more later in the day.

"She's a really nice filly. We've always had an opinion of her," Lundholm said of Career Change.

"She was a bit disappointing second-up but back to that shorter distance, she's just a fresh horse and a really good sprinter. She's fast and just ran them off their legs yesterday. She's a horse that will win a nice little race for us along the way."

Some travelling could now be on the cards for Lundholm's four-year-old mare as he tries to find some shorter distance events worth higher prizemoney.

"Things are looking pretty good for her," he added.

Let Me Reign is also a galloper the Dubbo trainer has a high opinion of after he made it two wins in four career starts when taking out the Lane Class 1 and Maiden Plate (1600m).

"She's only a three-year-old filly in her first preparation and to do what she's done and the way she did it yesterday, she's a horse that has a really bright future ahead of her," he said.

"I think the aim was to go out to the paddock after yesterday and we may look at the (Country) Championships and bring her back to the 1400 (metres) or she's got the credentials to be a nice Highway horse."

Lundholm will now look for more success at Tuesday's Melbourne Cup Day meeting at Dubbo Turf Club, pending the outcome of predicted rain on Monday.

He's got seven horses set for the six-race non-TAB meeting, including Royal Affair after she pulled up well from Saturday's win.

Racing will start at 1.30pm.